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Adam Gilchrist believes David Warner deserves the first chance opening for Australia at the ODI World Cup despite Mitch Marsh’s promising stint at the top of the order on the last visit to India.
Typically a middle-order batter, Marsh stepped in to open in Australia’s three-match 50-over series against India in March after an elbow injury struck Warner down.
Marsh finished the 2-1 victory as Australia’s top run-scorer and the player of the series.
He memorably scored 81 runs in the first ODI and forged a match-winning partnership in the second with fellow opener Travis Head, who appears a lock for selection at the World Cup that begins in October.
Warner returned for the third match of that series and batted fourth, contributing 23 runs to Australia’s win.
Since then, the veteran opener has pitched in a decent Ashes campaign, though not one that has dispelled all doubt as to his ability to remain in the team to begin the Test summer.
(Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)
But legendary Australia white-ball opener Gilchrist said there should be no debate about Warner’s place alongside Head at the top for the order for India.
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Australia begin their preparations for the World Cup with fifty-over series against South Africa and India, with Marsh, Head and Warner all earning selection in the squad.
“You don’t take (Warner) if you’re not going to start with him and open with him,” Gilchrist told AAP. “He well and truly warrants being picked in that World Cup squad and the starting XI. He’s a World Cup winner.
“I think his knowledge and experience in India will be vitally important to the Aussies doing well.”
Gilchrist suggested Warner had proven he could thrive amid similar doubts as to his selection credentials.
Warner’s form had been patchy ahead of the 2021 T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates but the veteran hit his stride at the right time, helping propel Australia to the trophy and earning selection in the team of the tournament.
“He doesn’t mind being backed into a corner,” Gilchrist said. “That’s probably not the way he always wants it to play out but he knows how to throw a counter-punch here and there.”
A strong World Cup campaign could give Warner the momentum he needs to begin the Test summer on song and finish his international career as he hopes: With a home Test at the SCG.
“Hopefully it launches him into a summer here, or half a summer here so he can hit the point (at the SCG) that he’s suggested he wants to,” Gilchrist said.
